Applicant's disclosure is generally directed towards the location of a mobile device within a communications network. There are many traditional methods of locating a mobile device including, but not limited to, handset-based techniques and network-based techniques. These techniques may include, but are not limited to, Assisted-Global Positioning Satellite (A-GPS), Uplink Time Difference of Arrival (U-TDOA), Observed TDOA (O-TDOA), Enhanced Observed Time Difference (E-OTD), Electronic Cell Identification (E-CID), Radio Frequency (RF) fingerprinting, and Multiple Range Estimation Location (MREL) techniques, to name a few. Such techniques, however, may be ineffective in locating mobile devices in certain challenging environments, e.g., urban environments, indoor environments, etc.
Several telecommunications industry reports have indicated a higher usage of mobile devices in such challenging environments as well as higher usage of location based applications in recent years. Mobile devices operating in these environments may be blocked from receiving GPS signals due to the signal attenuation of the satellite signals by building infrastructure and/or other environmental aspects. This same infrastructure may also attenuate the signals transmitted by cellular towers such that cellular service may be unavailable. Such challenging environments often provide a paucity of positional or location measurements that would enable determining the location of mobile devices. This insufficiency of measurements may lead to a poor location estimate for the mobile device and/or an inability of the respective system or device to generate the location estimate. One example of such insufficient measurements may occur during the location of a mobile device inside a building, under heavy cloud cover, or when obstructed by large structures. These situations may arise in the context of A-GPS location and/or terrestrial location determinations, with or without Location Measurement Units (LMU), or in any combination thereof. Additionally, even in RF pattern matching schemes, an indoor mobile device may provide poor RF signatures as exemplary schemes may rely upon calibration data obtained in the outdoor environment.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a system and method to improve location capabilities of a communications system in such environments. There is a further need in the art to increase or boost the number of available positional measurements for the location determination of a mobile device.
In view of these needs, one embodiment of the present subject matter provides a method of determining the location of a target mobile device in a communications network. The method may include determining a set of mobile devices in proximity to the target mobile device as a function of a common parameter of information observed by mobile devices in the set and sharing measurement data amongst the set of mobile devices and the target mobile device. A location of the target mobile device may then be determined as a function of the shared measurement data.
Another embodiment of the present subject matter provides a method of determining the location of a target mobile device in a communications network. The method may include determining a set of mobile devices in proximity to the target mobile device as a function of a common parameter of information observed by mobile devices in the set. Measurement data from mobile devices in the set and from the target mobile device may be transmitted to a communications network entity. A location of the target mobile device may then be determined as a function of both the transmitted measurement data from the set of mobile devices and the transmitted measurement data from the target mobile device.
A further embodiment of the present subject matter may provide a method of determining the location of a target mobile device in a communications network. The method may include determining a set of mobile devices in proximity to the target mobile device as a function of a common parameter of information observed by mobile devices in the set and determining locations of one or more mobile devices in the set. The determined locations may be shared amongst mobile devices in the set and the target mobile device. A location of the target mobile device may then be determined as a function of the shared determined locations.
An additional embodiment of the present subject matter may provide a method of determining the location of a target mobile device in a communications network. The method may include determining one or more common parameters of information for mobile devices in proximity to the target mobile device and identifying a set of mobile devices as a function of the determined one or more common parameters. A location of the target mobile device may be determined as a function of the measurement data from the set of mobile devices.
Another exemplary embodiment for determining the location of a target mobile device in a communications network may include determining a set of mobile devices in proximity to the target mobile device as a function of a common parameter of information observed by mobile devices in the set and then determining a location of the target mobile device as a function of measurement data from the determined set of mobile devices.
These and other embodiments of the present subject matter will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the disclosure pertains from a perusal or the claims, the appended drawings, and the following detailed description.